Placing The Pieces
by Chikicha
Summary: The lives of four pokemon trainers are unexpectedly tied together in their struggle to overcome a new criminal organization... but first they must overcome themselves.
1. Rush

Part One  
"Rush"

Her breaths coming out short but heavy, a tall, thin, yet muscular-built woman quickly ran across the gray cement floors, arms pumping at her sides, one pokeball tightly gripped in her hand. Wind weaved through her long straight waist-length blond hair, almost white, as her sharp forest-green eyes scanned her surroundings. All around her were the flat rooftops of other buildings, similar to the one she was running on now, as the objects closer to her were turning into blurs of colors as she ran on. But most of them were skyscrapers, much taller than the one her quick footsteps were echoing off of.

"You can't run from us forever!" A scratchy male voice shouted from somewhere behind. Without slowing down, the woman took a moment to glance over her shoulder at the three men hot in pursuit, just a matter of yards away. _Running away? Me? As if._ But the woman did not reply, she only turned her head back around to look towards the front again, her heart thudding quickly in her chest. Not from fear, never from fear. But from the excitement, from the adrenaline rush. _Fear... it's been a long time since I've felt that,_ she thought to herself, slightly amused. _I'm starting to forget what it feels like._

At the end of a small warehouse atop the roof, she took sudden turn to the right. There, right in front of her - the rooftop of another building, around the same height, maybe slightly lower. As she drew near the edge of the building she was on, the woman estimated the distance between the two. Maybe... ten meters or so? Far too much for her to jump. She skid to a stop five meters away from the edge when she realized this, the sounds of honking cars driving across the streets far below them. The woman then whirled around to look at the three men drawing closer, now wearing triumphant grins on their faces when they realized her situation.

The woman raised her eyebrows at their expressions. "Ponyta, go!" She called, tossing her pokeball into the air and then catching it again as a Ponyta emerged neighing out of the glowing bright light.

_Single minded..._

Gripping her hands around the Ponyta's neck, feeling nothing but air around the flickering flames, she swung her leg over the pokemon's back in one swift motion so she was sitting on top.

_...to the point..._

She pointed at the rooftop in front of them with a "Go!". That was all the Ponyta needed to start galloping ahead. As they neared the edge, the woman then hugged her body as closely to the Ponyta as she could, gripping the flaming horse tightly, tensed up and ready for what was coming.

_...of recklessness._

Upon reaching the edge, the Ponyta pushed off with its legs into the air. There was a split second of silence free from the previous sounds of hooves, and the woman closed her eyes and smiled to herself. The moment ended when the Ponyta swiftly landed on the roof of the building they had been aiming for. The woman leaned up straight again and swung her leg back over, hopping to the ground. "Good job," she told the pokemon, still smiling. "Now return!" She called, and the Ponyta dissolved back into the bright light and back into the pokeball once again. She then turned around and observed the three men standing at the edge of the other rooftop. They cursed at her, shaking their fists. The woman crossed her arms at her waist and leaned her weight on one leg, waiting. Any moment now...

A large boom sounded through the air as billowing purple smoke suddenly came up from the ground right at the three men's feet, sending them into coughing fits. She watched as they doubled over, clutching their chests, and eventually collapsed to the ground unconscious. Her smile became wider at the memory of dropping the timed mechanism on the ground right before her Ponyta leapt.

"Sky, is everything going alright?" A male voice buzzed with static at her side. Sky glanced down at her police uniform and the walkie-talkie they were required to wear. She unattached it from her waist and held it close to her face to speak, holding down the button. "Yeah, mission accomplished," she replied, glancing back over at the three unconscious men on the other rooftop. "I've got three men down on the eastern side of the rooftop of the Pokemon Center at 145th and Q. Gassed them. Can you come and round them up? I think I still may have something I need to do."

"Oh God, and what would that be?" The voice asked. Sky didn't speak as the increasing sound of choppers came up from behind her. She whirled around to the sight of a large black helicopter with tinted windows emerged, a symbol of a blue crescent moon on every window.

"Relax, I'll be fine. Just give me a sec." She replied assuringly, reaching for a different pokeball at her belt as she slowly took a few steps backwards, still staring fixedly at the helicopter.

"Then what the heck is that noise in the background? Sky, if you need reinforcements, then call for them, damnit!" He replied in a frustrated voice.

"No, I'm telling you, I'll be fine. Now shut up for a moment.. I need to concentrate."

_She's single minded to the point of recklessness._

The man on the other end of the walkie-talkie didn't speak after that, but she could imagine him quietly cursing to himself. So what if she did things on her own sometimes? It didn't matter to her if she knew she could handle it. As for the rest of the police force... _Oh, what do I care about what they think? My ranking's high enough anyway,_ she thought to herself. But Sky's thoughts were diverted back to her current situation as she took another step backwards and carefully balanced on the railing of the roof, still staring down the helicopter. With one quick motion, she let herself fall back and off the edge. Her stomach leapt to her throat as the G forces came, and Sky spread her arms and legs out wide, slowing her speed down slightly. Still tightly gripping the new pokeball, she called out, "Skarmory, go!", and with a flash of silver wings, her Skarmory emerged and lashed out its talons, catching Sky and halting her fall. But the stop didn't last long, and soon the Skarmory was diving down towards the ground even faster than Sky had been falling. Her eyes started watering from the quick-moving air as she heard the whooshing sound of the helicopter directly above them. "Now!" She called out. Her Skarmory took a sudden 180 degree turn as it soared back up towards the sky, zooming past the helicopter in one movement. They soared yards directly above the helicopter, and Sky took a round mechanism from her pocket and aimed it at the helicopter. Squinting her eyes, Sky pressed a button on the mechanism so that a red light flashed on, and then she brought her arm back and tossed the mechanism at the helicopter with all the strength she could muster. "Get away, now!" She ordered her Skarmory. It obeyed, cawing at the sky and flapping its metal wings as it soared away.

They put enough distance between themselves and the helicopter just in time, as a large explosion rumbled and a sudden rush of air came from behind and blew Sky's hair into her face. She glanced over her shoulder to see the helicopter crash down on top of the roof of the same building the three unconscious men were lying on, now engulfed in flames with various chunks of metal coming apart. Grinning, Sky told her Skarmory to land, and she hopped off the pokemon's back and returned it to its pokeball just in time to watch several police offers emerge from the door to the top of the rooftop that held the unconscious men and the flaming helicopter filled with more men, all criminals. From her location, Sky could only see their silhouettes. One of the officers on the rooftop put a hand on his hip and raised his hand near his face.

"How are you doing, Sky?" The same male voice, now irritated yet awed, asked from her walkie-talkie.

"How do you think I'm doing? Did you just see what I did?" Sky replied, catching her breath.

"Yeah, I did. Don't you think that was a little overly dramatic?"

_Recklessness._

* * *

Sky remembered it well. Ever since she was just a kid, before she was even old enough to have pokemon of her own, she had let go of fear and given in to the adrenaline rush. Her body had received more physical harm than the average elementary school girl, and even though she didn't like it, pain was something she was learning to get used to. Besides, later on in life Sky eventually found out emotional pain could be a thousand times worse than any actual injury. Maybe that increased the recklessness even more... if that's what you wanted to call it. At least, that's what her psychologists called it.

_"Sky has no serious mental problems," the female doctor confirmed, sitting down in the chair placed in front of Sky and her parents, looking down at her clipboard. "She's simply... well..."_

_"Well what?" Sky's mother asked, leaning forward in her chair._

_"She's single minded to the point of recklessness. That's all."_

That's all. Sky sighed, the words echoing around inside her head. She would always remember them. She agreed, but that didn't make her act safer. She saw nothing bad in being single minded. _When I want to get something done, I can do it,_ Sky thought to herself.

There was a loud ringing beep that sounded from the ceiling of Sky's office, the sound of the intercom. "Sky, can you come down to the interrogation room for a moment? We've picked up a suspicious-looking man who claims he's not a criminal, but we're having trouble deciding what to do with him," explained the same male voice that had spoken to her before.

Sky leaned her head back on her chair and took a sip of her coffee. "Oh fine, I'm coming," she replied. She listened to the intercom beep again, the sign that it had been turned off. Sighing once again, she set down her coffee on the desk in front of her and stood up, stretching her arms out, taking her time. _I'd much rather be out _there _instead of in _here_, dealing with stuff like this,_ she thought grumpily, shoving open her door and turning to walk down the narrow hallway. As she passed dozens of doors, her footsteps vibrating loudly across the empty walls, Sky stopped paying attention to where she was going and let her thoughts drift to the memories of the actions she had just survived earlier that day with the helicopter. Her legs already seemed to know where to lead her, simply from walking down these paths almost every day. After a few minutes, she found herself standing before a gray windowless door. After knocking, Sky turned the handle to let herself in, letting the door swing shut behind her as she gazed at the scene in front of her.

In the middle of the dark room was a small table, with a boy only slightly younger than herself sitting in a chair next to one of the edges. His hands were handcuffed to a bar in the center of the table, and he was leaning his elbows on the table, his head hung down. The boy's sandy colored hair was tangled and unkept, sticking up here and there, flopped down in front over his eyes as he continued to hang his head down. The pokeballs containing his pokemon were attached to a separate table guarded by three police officers; a required safety measure. What stood out the most about the boy's appearance though, was the black uniform with the blood-red letter R embroidered on the front... the Team Rocket uniform. No wonder they found him suspicious.

Sky carelessly sat down in the chair across from him. "What's his name? Have you looked up his criminal record on our database?" She asked, never taking her eyes off the boy. Even at the sound of her voice, he continued to hang his head down.

"Yes. His name is Jason Delgo, and he has no criminal record that we know of. However, it appears he's part of Team Rocket, though he claims he isn't."

Jason finally raised his head slightly, revealing his piercing dark brown eyes. Through the bangs of his hair, he glared across the table at Sky with loathing. _Boy, if looks could kill..._ Sky thought warily. He obviously didn't want to be here any more than she did. But even without the Team Rocket uniform, he looked like the criminal type. Also the falsely accused prankster type.

"That's because I'm _not_ part of Team Rocket," he spat. "At least, not anymore. I don't want anything to do with them! I doubt they'll even notice I've left. Quit wasting your time with me, you idiots. Didn't your fancy computers say I haven't done anything wrong?" Jason raised up his head all the way, but his eyes shot away from Sky's face to a random part of the ground, refusing to make eye contact with anybody in the room.

"And yet you're still in your Team Rocket uniform," Sky observed.

"You think they'd _let_ me quit? I stopped on my own, I don't need them anymore, they don't need me, nobody needs me!" Jason kicked one of the legs of the table, his teeth now gritted together. "I don't need anybody, everybody can just go and DIE!" He kicked the leg of the table again so that his handcuffs clanged together. The police officers on the perimeter of the room made cautious movements slightly closer towards Jason, but Sky remained unmoving and calm, still bored with the situation.

"When we patted him down, he didn't have any Team Rocket ID card on him," one of the police officers noted.

Sky remained silent for a moment, gazing at Jason, who's shoulders were now heaving up and down as his breaths came out slow and heavy, like a bull getting ready to charge. _All this guy needs is some anger management classes,_ Sky thought to herself. "Okay, you heard him, he's not part of Team Rocket anymore and from what we can tell, he hasn't actually committed any crimes. Let him go." _Just get him out of my sight._

The other police officers exchanged doubtful glances, but proceeded to unattach the pokeballs from their containers on the other table and uncuff Jason's hands. As they did so, Jason continued to glare down at the ground, but snarled out more words. "Good guys and bad guys, that's the only two groups you people ever divide others into. You judge and then you forget, you pretend to care when all you really want is their help!" His voice was growing louder. "But not me. Am I the only one here that knows how to be independent?!" Now he was shouting.

"Save it, will you?" Sky told him. "The room is small and your loud voice is hurting my ears. Just be glad we're letting you go." And with that, she took the bag of pokeballs handed to her by the other police officers, and tightly gripped Jason's shoulder as she lead him out of the room and down the florescent-lit hallway. But his loud words were still ringing in her ears. _Not me,_ Sky wanted to say. _Not me... I don't lump everybody into just two groups, don't associate me with them, there's a reason I'm letting you go..._ She bit her lip.

They walked down the hallway together at a brisk pace in silence. Jason, whom was once again hanging his head down as he trudged on, tried to shrug off Sky's hand once, but she wouldn't let him and only gripped tighter. After she took him down one last hallway and they drew closer to the door with the eerie glowing red exit sign, Jason spoke. "This light makes your hair look white," he observed.

"Don't remind me," replied Sky, mentally wincing. More silence dragged on by, and Sky quickened her pace. "Ugh, I hate this job," she muttered.

Jason rose his head slightly as his eyes shot towards Sky's direction, but still not directly into her eyes. "Then why don't you quit it?" He asked.

The expression on Sky's face softened. "Because of a man I'm in love with," she answered.

Jason snorted. "Love is overrated," he spat. "It's just something people like to talk about to make themselves feel special. I want nothing to do with it."

"You sound like a toddler who believes in cooties."

"Yeah well, it can't be all that great if that's what's making you do a job you hate."

Sky didn't reply. She pushed open the door as they reached it, a sudden brisk rush of air blowing into their faces as blinding sunlight met their eyes. Sky let go of Jason's shoulder and held out six pokeballs in her hands. "Here's your pokemon. Now get moving and get something to wear other than that uniform if you don't want to get arrested again," she ordered.

Jason quickly grabbed the pokeballs from her hands and lazily shoved them in his pockets. The two of them stood there for a moment, not moving, simply staring in different directions. "So why does loving this guy mean you have to stay on the police force?" Jason asked.

Sky weaved her fingers through her hair. "One year ago, there was... an accident. Lead by that new criminal organization, much more dangerous than Team Rocket. I'm sure you've heard of them. Well, I tried to take things into my own hands. I was battling them by myself, and I was careless with my own safety... but I had no idea that would also mean being careless with the safety of those around me. One of the men was using a Scyther, and I lead the battle too close to my love." Sky stared at the ground, shifting her weight from leg to leg, not sure what to do with herself. "He was... badly hurt. That's all I can say here. And it was all my fault. So I vowed I'd stay a part of the police force as long as I could, in hope that it could help train me to not be so reckless with my actions."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "And is it working?"

Sky looked back up, but he continued to refuse any eye contact. "...Not yet," she admitted. "I think it will take some time. Being part of the police, I'm helping protect many people every day."

"I still don't see how any of this benefits you," Jason told her. "How do you expect to protect others if you can't protect yourself?"

"I don't need protecting," she replied simply, her head held high. "And this is not about what will benefit me. I don't know if I'll ever deserve any benefit again."

And she whirled around, pulling the door open and shoving it closed behind her, leaving Jason gazing at the spot where she once stood.

* * *

Staring out at the streetlights glowing brightly in the night, Sky pulled up on the driveway of a small blue house that she knew so well. _My love's house._ Sky thought, yawning widely at the tiredness numbing her mind and body. It had been another long hard day at work, but that didn't stop her from visiting him every day. Almost like she felt obligated to.

Slamming the door shut behind her, Sky walked towards the front door and rung the doorbell three times in a row, her own signal. As she stood waiting on the front porch, she shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels, tensing up her shoulders against the occasional gust of wind. Autumn had only just begun, but she could feel it more clearly on some nights than others, slyly nipping at her cheeks instead of caressing them. Eventually the door opened ever so slightly, and a the face of a man with smooth dark-brown hair and deep blue eyes poked his head out. At the sight of Sky, he smiled.

"Come on in," he told her, retreating back inside the house.

Sky obeyed, opening the door wider and then carefully closing it, letting the sudden warmth of the house comfort her tenseness. It was always soft and quiet inside the house, just like the man's personality. But Sky liked it that way. "How are you, James?" she asked.

"I'm okay," he replied simply. "And you?" Across the hallway, he turned around the look at her again. This time, under the light of the small chandelier carefully hanging from the ceiling, a large dark-red scar could be seen etched on the right side of his face, slightly puffy, stretched all the way from his hairline to his neck and under his shirt, where Sky knew it ended halfway down his back. A fresh wave of guilt washed over her at the sight of his injury, and her whole body sagged with the weight of this guilt as she hung up her jacket on the tall coat rack placed next to the door.

"Well, the first half of work was good, but the second half was pretty boring." Sky walked over towards James and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she continued on her way towards the kitchen, only too familiar with the house. "I did get to meet this.. interesting.. guy, though. I'll call him 'interesting' for lack of a better word." Sky grinned to herself. "Name's Jason. He has... some problems." _But then again, don't we all?_

"What sort of problems?" James asked, following Sky towards the kitchen, but pausing to lean on the entrance frame.

"Doesn't think anybody needs him, doesn't think he needs anybody, pretty much angry at everything."

"That must be... lonely."

In the process of opening the refrigerator door, Sky paused in mid-reach to glance back over at James's face, which was as expressionless as ever except for the calmness. "Yeah," she breathed out, pondering the idea.

"You should go and try to visit him again," James suggested, moving forward so he was standing beside Sky. "Try to convince him otherwise."

"Maybe I will," Sky said slowly, still gazing at James. They stood there like that, Sky still holding open the refrigerator door, both of them gazing at each other in silence.

"What is it?" James asked, starting to smile.

"Nothing... I just love you." Sky whispered, letting go of the refrigerator door to pull her arms around him.

"I love you too," he whispered back, leaning in to softly touch his lips to hers.

But as they stood there in each other's arms, Sky's heart was slowly cracking. _But you shouldn't,_ Sky thought, the guilt drowning her out. _You shouldn't still love me. _

_Because I couldn't protect you, and I'll never be able to._


	2. Promise

Part Two  
"Promise"

Sky gripped the steering wheel in her hands so tightly her knuckles turned white, as if the more she pushed, the faster she'd go. _Damnit, the one day I'm late has to be the one day we all have an important meeting, of course,_ she thought to herself, frustrated with the ways of the world at that moment. The previous night had been another excuse for lack of sleep after she had returned home from visiting James. Even the tiredness wasn't enough to let her rest peacefully, not with the all the guilt weighing her down. Even in the hurry she was in to get ready, she could still notice the rings under her wary eyes when she glanced at the mirror in her rush.

Her thoughts were so tense that Sky barely noticed when a medium-sized slouching figure suddenly stepped into the middle of the road. She slammed her foot down on the brakes, her car skidding to a stop merely inches away from the boy with a loud screech. Breathing heavily, Sky recognized the boy as Jason. He was now clothed in something other than his old Team Rocket uniform, though now he looked worse for the ware. His hands were stuffed into his ripped jean pockets, pokeballs visible hanging on his loose belt. The expression on Jason's face was as disgruntled as ever as he stared out at Sky, finally making eye contact for the second time.

Sky rolled down her window and stuck her head out. "Jason, what are you doing?! Are you crazy?! I could've ran you over!" she shouted.

"But you didn't," Jason pointed out the obvious, not answering her question. He turned his head to the side to stare someplace else. "Not that you or anyone else would care if you did." His stare into the distance turned into a glare.

"Look, I don't have time for this right now.. I'm already late." Sky quickly glanced over at the car's digital clock. "But James told me to visit you sometime. So just wait. And next time don't walk into the middle of the road like that!" And with that, she rolled her window back up and drove her car in a curve around Jason, not bothering to wait for him to move.

Jason turned around to watch the car zoom off into the distance with another screech as it quickly picked up speed. He honestly didn't know what he had been doing. But then again, when had he ever? Jason kicked an empty soda can across the street to vent some of this small frustration, listening to it go clanging across the ground.

Walking back towards the sidewalk, he took one of the pokeballs from his belt and lazily tossed it up into the air. A Fearow emerged cawing and flapping its wings from the bright light. "Fearow, go and find some food. You know what to do," he ordered. The pokemon gave another loud cry before it pushed off from the ground and flew away, leaving a trail of brown feathers behind. Jason picked one of them up and rolled it between his fingers and he collapsed down to sit against a wall. Sky's words echoed in his ears. _"...Told me to come visit you sometime."_ A visitor. Jason dropped the feather and watched a small gust of wind send it twirling. A visitor... was that a promise or not? _But she's only coming to see me because someone told her to,_ Jason thought grumpily. As if he had anything of importance to talk about with anybody.

Half an hour later, a short girl with small features except for her round eyes noticed a trail of soft brown feathers lining the ground. _A pokemon,_ she thought instantly, interrupting her wonders for a moment. She stood still and raised her head to observe where the trail led. Stepping slowly and quietly, she following the trail of feathers to the corner of a building and stuck her head around. In front of her was a large Fearow carrying an assortment of edible fruits in its beak, facing away from the girl. She narrowed her eyes and took out a pokeball.

* * *

Jason's mind was somewhere in the state between waking and sleeping, unable to distinguish the difference between thoughts and dreams, his head resting on his knees in his slouching position against the wall. Snapping his head back up, Jason broke away from this state by the sound of small footsteps in the distance echoing off the walls surrounding him. Accompanying this was also a strange scraping noise. Jason kept his head up, warily waiting as the dark silhoette came closer and slowly became recognizable.

It was a small girl with large round eyes, her eyebrows raised with curiosity. Her layered hair went no farther than her chin, enhancing her already small childish features. Jason couldn't tell whether her hair was blond or brown - she appeared to have dyed thick highlights of one color or the other. But the girl was not what Jason was staring at for long. It was the unconscious Fearow she was dragging across the ground on her back - _his_ Fearow. The scraping noise had been the Fearow's talons dragging across the cold cement.

In one quick jerky movement, Jason leapt to his feet. "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?! That's _my_ pokemon!" he shouted.

The girl didn't seem fazed by his anger. "Good, I was wondering how much longer I'd have to keep dragging it along!" she exclaimed with a tired laugh, carefully setting the Fearow on the ground. "Since it already belongs to a trainer, my pokeballs wouldn't work on it. I found that out when I tried to catch it." She looked back up at Jason, narrowing her eyes with a small smile, as if he were a child she had caught in trouble. "Though I already figured it belonged to somebody anyways.. when I saw it with the food."

_Well aren't you a talkative one,_ Jason thought, trying to stare her down to wipe the annoying smile off her face. "So you go and attack it?"

"Yeah," the girl replied, never changing her expression. She leaned in closer. "Did you _steal_ that food?" She asked sternly.

"No! In case you didn't notice, they're all fruits. I know where all the edible fruits are around here, 'cause I've wandered around enough."

The girl relaxed, a more cheerful smile spreading across her mouth. "Well, that good. You didn't look like a criminal to me," she told him.

Jason raised his eyebrows in disbelief, angered once again by her cheerfulness and her complete lack of any intimidation of him. "I used to be a part of Team Rocket, you know!" he replied.

"But you're obviously not anymore!" she retorted. Her smile turned into a grin as she extended her hand forwards to shake hands with him. "My name's Clara. What's yours?"

Jason stared at her hand raised in front of him like it was something poisonous. _What the hell is with this girl?_ "Why would I want to tell you that?!" he spat. "What are you, ten?"

"I'm thirteen," Clara replied, looking only slightly offended. Apparently she was used to people thinking she was younger than she was. Clara lowered her hand back down when it became apparent Jason wasn't going to shake it. "And usually the first thing people like to know about someone when they meet them for the first time is their name."

"I don't give a crap about what other people like to know. I don't know if you can tell or not, but I don't like talking to people. And _usually_ people don't like talking to me." On the word _usually_, Jason quickly glanced at Clara, but then stared back down at the ground. "The only person who's coming to talk to me is some police woman. Sky or whatever her name is."

Clara raised her eyebrows. "Well that's something, isn't it?"

"Why should it be? Besides, she's only doing it because her boyfriend told her to." Jason smirked. "She's stuck in a job she hates because of him. Sucks for her, I guess!" He leaned back against the wall once again after returning his Fearow to a pokeball.

"Yeah, that _is_ sad," Clara replied, staring at Jason wonderingly. She turned around, but looked back over her shoulder at him. "Well, I guess I'll go now and leave you in peace. But it was nice meeting you!" she exclaimed with another smile. Waving goodbye, she ran towards the direction she came from, her footsteps drifting off into the distance.

"What _was_ that?" Jason muttered to himself, long after Clara was out of sight.

* * *

Sky collapsed into a leather chair with heaving breaths, her heart still thudding quickly from running. She had only just barely made it to the meeting room in time. Small black tables all faced a large projection screen, and the room was dark so that it could be seen more clearly. As Sky adjusted her uniform slightly, the talk amongst the other officers in the room sitting at the tables quickly died down as the few lights that had been still be on turned off, leaving the screen towards the front as the only source of light. Sky straightened up in her chair, staring intently at the screen. She was just barely able to resist lying her head down on the cold jet-black surface of the table to let sleep take her over once more.

A live image of their boss's face - a stern-looking middle aged man with slightly graying light-brown hair - appeared on the screen. Once the image was clear, he began to speak to the officers, welcoming them to the meeting, going on about the importance of their roles. Sky was only truly listening for the first two minutes until her mind wandered off. She was no longer staring at the screen. Instead, she was gazing _through_ the screen, imagining running, leaping, flying, tossing a pokeball into the air...

Sky snapped back into attention in reaction to a name spoken for the first time during that meeting from their boss's lips. _"Crescent."_ Sky leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table and her head on her fists as her thoughts intensified. "As you all know, a select choice of you have been assigned to try to put an end to this new criminal organization," the man told them. Had he already mentioned it during the meeting? Sky silently cursed herself for not paying more attention. "Well, now I believe a responsible action would be to assign even more of you to this task. I'm disappointed to admit we have not made much progress in extinguishing this organization, and it has only grown stronger since we came to know of them. Or should I say, him or her. We don't know the identity of the leader of this organization, but from the organization's symbol of a blue crescent moon that you all have seen, we've dubbed the leader the name 'Crescent' for now."

"For those of you who were not previously assigned to this task, arresting the leader and followers of this criminal organization has been one of our top priorities for a while now because they have proven much more aggressive and ill-moraled than Team Rocket, ultimately making them much more dangerous. While Team Rocket usually steals pokemon to perform illegal experiments on and sell them on the black market, Crescent's organization uses stolen pokemon to take over important government buildings and industries, often times in the form of killing."

Sky's mind was clouded over with determination in the form of hatred. Someone on the ground, not breathing. Blood. A Scyther. Shouting, leaping. Sharp clanging of scythes. A cry that pierced the night. More blood. Someone else falling to the ground. Brown hair visible through the blood. No, it couldn't be... no, no, no...

Sky's attention raced back to her boss's words. "This organization has grown too large. The only way to fully penetrate their defenses is to find and arrest the leader, whom we first must find the identity of. I will assign some of you to the task of using data to try to figure out Crescent's real identity."

Sky had a philosophy on the ways of good and evil. But the only thing she could hear being shouted in her mind was, _the enemy, the enemy, the enemy..._ That was a promise to James. As Sky closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she knew it was for him.

* * *

Sky dug her fork deep into her pork chop, twirling the handle of the fork slowly between her fingers. Only a few small bites off her plate had actually been eaten. Through her distance gaze through the plate, in the corner of her eye she could spot James across the table, staring at her intently. She looked up and into his eyes. He appeared to have been waiting for her.

Once eye contact had finally been established, James spoke up. "There's something on your mind." It wasn't a question.

Setting her fork down, Sky sighed. "Yeah, I was just thinking. Even if you don't love me, I'm still going to put an end to Crescent's organization." Her gaze turned soft. "For you."

"And why wouldn't I love you?" he asked, no trace of amusement in his voice.

Sky liked that James knew when she wanted to be serious. "Besides the obvious? Maybe because you're only in love with love itself. I don't know."

_Besides the obvious._ James knew what she meant by that. _Besides the fact that I wasn't able to protect you,_ he knew she had wanted to say. James could hear the guilt soaking in Sky's voice.

But he also knew what she was trying to do. "You're trying to give me more reason to realize you don't deserve me. Don't. This isn't about what you do or don't deserve," James told her calmly.

"But is it true?" Sky asked warily.

"Which part?"

"Any of it."

James didn't answer. He only gazed at Sky with longing. Longing for her guilt to vanish, longing for her to have the satisfaction of completing her task, longing for her to feel happy. But James searched desperately inside himself for the longing for _her_.

James's observations inside himself were interrupted by the shrill ringing of Sky's cellphone. "Just a moment," she murmured, quickly flipping out her phone. James was used to her frequently getting calls from police officers even when her shifts were over. She held it to her face. James watched her sullen expression turn into a surprised one. "Really? Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay." Sky glanced over at James for a moment. "I'll have to talk to you about it in person. Should I come over? Alright. Bye," she finished, turning off her cellphone and setting it carefully down on the table.

"Who was that?" James asked.

"Somebody I know," Sky replied simply. She stood up. "Sorry I couldn't finish the dinner, but I need to leave right away now."

"Why?" James was surprised and curious. Even when the police called Sky after her work was done, she usually didn't have to go anywhere.

"For something important. No time to explain now." Sky gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she quickly walked past him and towards the front door of his house. She paused to take her jacket off the coat hanger and quickly shoved her arms through the sleeves. Sky opened the door to a sudden gust of wind and glanced over her shoulder at James one last time. "Bye!" she told him, before turning her head forwards once more and shutting the door closed behind her.

James was left still sitting in his chair, gazing at the closed door. He was only too used to Sky's sudden disappearances. He sighed, gazing back down at his half-eaten pork chop, and the almost completely uneaten one on Sky's plate across from him. He was only faintly aware of her cellphone still left on the table. _Is any of it true?_ James asked himself.

Even he wasn't quite sure.


	3. Pieces

Part Three  
"Pieces"

The warm sun's early rays were just barely beginning to creep over the horizon, signaling the beginning of early morning with brilliant shades of reds and purples splattered elegantly across the sky. Light began to spread across the city like a thick blanket, and as it filled every corner of an abandoned alley where Jason sat hunched down against a bare cement wall, his shadow began to stretch across the ground. Waking up, he blinked the tired blurriness from his eyes as he raised his head to look over at the illuminating horizon.

That's when she appeared. Sky. Hardly more than a shadowy silhouette, she paused only for a moment, gazing across the distance at Jason with a smile. As she began to move forwards again, coming more clearly into view, Jason couldn't help thinking there was something.. _different_ about her. Maybe it was the way she held herself up, or the pace at which she took her stride, or the way she continued to stare at him. He wasn't quite sure, but he _did_ know that it was as if some invisible heavy weight had finally been lifted off Sky.

Upon reaching Jason, Sky stood over him with one hand placed on her hip. "Hey," she greeted him simply before collapsing down against the wall to sit next to him.

"What are you doing here?" Jason asked in a monotone voice, never turning his head to look at her.

"I got out of the house earlier just so I could come and visit you before I have to be at work," Sky replied, continuing to smile.

Only then did Jason turn his face to the left to glance at her. Indeed, she was already dressed in her police uniform, pokeballs clasped firmly at her belt. Jason wondered how Sky could look so strict and firm standing up with straight posture in her police attire, yet also look so laid back and relaxed slouched against the wall in a similar position to his own. Jason mentally shook these thoughts out of his head.

"Well, I don't know what you were expecting, coming here. I've really got nothing to talk about that concerns other people. All the time." Jason finished with a wide yawn. How was Sky able to look so alert so early in the morning?

"Why don't you want to be near anybody?"

"'Cause I just wasn't made to be near people. And I don't mind. I don't give a crap about them, even if I was good at talking to them. But I'm not. I talk without thinking first, 'cause I don't really see any reason in thinking about my words."

"So, in other words, you antagonize people," Sky replied, crossing her arms behind her head. "Well then, I guess I'll start. Lately at work, we've been focusing on taking down that new criminal organization led by Crescent."

"At work... you mean the job you're doing because of James?" Jason asked with a smirk.

Sky furrowed her brow. "James?"

"Yeah, you know. Your boyfriend. The reason you came here to see me."

Sky now raised her eyebrows. "The last boyfriend I had was _years_ ago, back when I first started high school. I don't know who you're talking about."

Jason wracked his brains to try to remember the previous day and the words Sky had shouted out at him from inside her car in her rush to reach work. "Oh. Maybe I've got the name wrong, then." He shrugged, letting it go.

Sky remained silent, digging the heel of her shoe at a small pile of dirt blown across the cold cement. "Crescent... we don't know his true identity yet, but I can easily tell what his personality's like. It's usually what causes a lot of people to become criminals. He wants a lot of big things. And unfortunately so far, everything he wants, he gets. And he's used to that. We need to show him he can't get everything he wants." Sky's gaze turned determined.

"'He'? Didn't you say you don't know Crescent's identity yet? I bet Crescent is a girl."

Sky laughed. "Oh really? And why would that be?"

"I don't know.. people just usually assume all criminal leaders are guys. It's kinda tiring. It would just be a nice twist if it was a girl for once. I get pretty sick of listening to you people assume things all the time." Jason replied, his voice sounding slightly angry.

"Oh, give it a rest," Sky replied to his anger.

The two of them remained silent for a moment, staring off into different directions, absorbed in their own thoughts.

Then Jason spoke up. "You ever use that thing?" he asked, gesturing to the gun at Sky's belt beside the pokeballs.

Sky raised her eyebrows at him, placing a hand on her gun almost unconsciously. "We prefer not to. If force is needed, we usually use pokemon for both defense and offense. Besides, even as police officers, we don't have the legal right to kill anybody unless its for defense against a criminal who has attacked us while in pursuit, or if mass killings are in their previous record. Either way, it's illegal to use pokemon to actually kill, which is why we even have guns in the first place. But again, I prefer not to have to use it."

"So, if you found Crescent in person, you could just shoot them right then and there?" The violent thought seemed to please Jason.

Sky continued to gaze at him with raised eyebrows. "Well, yes, but it would be unadvisable to do so. It would be much smarter to bring him in for arrest and questioning."

"But that's so _boring_," Jason complained with a groan.

"No, that's so _civil_," Sky corrected him, rolling her eyes. "That's why it's good." She then stood up, brushing dirt off her uniform with a careless sweep of her hands. "But I've got to leave now. It was cool chatting with you, though. See you!"

And with that, she strode away at a brisk pace, back towards the way she came, her footsteps echoing off the walls. Jason was left staring into the distance once again, their previous conversation repeating in his mind. It was one of the longest conversations he had ever held with another person before.

* * *

Sky found herself lounging in her office chair, resting her head against the open palm of her hand with her elbow propped up on the empty desk. She used her other hand to absent-mindedly flip around a smooth black pen. She had not received any assignments concerning field work all day long. Sitting alone in her office, waiting, she was left to wade through her own doubts of why she was even there. _What's stopping me from quitting this job right here and now?_ she wondered.

Immediately after mentally asking herself that, the intercom in her ceiling sounded a loud ringing beep through Sky's ears. "Since today's been a slow day, can you come and interview a guy? He's applying for a job here, and our usual officer who does the interviews is off sick from work today."

"Sure, why not? Like you said, it's been slow... I don't have much else to do," Sky replied with a heavy sigh. When a small click signaled that the intercom had been turned off, she then continued to herself in a quiet voice, "It's not like I have much of a choice, anyways. If I refused I'd probably get in trouble... not that I'd really care if I did."

Sky shoved open her door and trudged down the hallways at a slow pace. Doing job application interviews.. just what had she been reduced to? She was supposed to be _outside_, running, jumping, leaping... But Sky reluctantly shook these thoughts out of her head as she reached over to open a door into another room, small, enclosed, and brightly lit.

The man patiently waiting at the only desk placed in the room was slightly older than herself. Half amused, it suddenly occurred to Sky that despite the small differences in their ages, she had thought of Jason as a boy while she thought of this new one as a man. His jet-black hair was of medium length, smoothly groomed, gracefully laid down upon the sides of his expressionless face.

Sky scooted the chair across from him backwards so she could sit down, extending her hand forward to shake his as she did so. "Hello, my name is Sky," she greeted him with a smile. "I'll be doing your job interview today."

He took her hand to shake it. His grip was neither too soft nor too rough, and as he let go, he smoothly passed her a filled application form. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sky. Here's my form."

Sky mentally perked up at the sound of his voice. Whenever he spoke, it was as smooth as velvet, refreshing and entrancing all at the same time to her ears. She quickly glanced down at his application form, skimming its contents, barely reading. "So, the name's Darien, then. And what brings you here to apply for a job, Darien?"

"I hear that this police force has been working on taking down the new criminal organization led by the person you've dubbed as 'Crescent'. I have a strong desire to bring a stop to this organization as well," Darien answered, speaking politely and carefully, continuing to remain expressionless.

It was nothing more than Sky had expected. Who _didn't_ want to bring a stop to this organization that wanted to or was already working here? She was already beginning to feel bored with the whole situation. "And what is it that motivates you to bring a stop to Crescent's organization?" she asked him, continuing to flip through his application form, pretending to read it. She could already predict what his answer would be like. It would be along the lines of believing crime in general was morally unjust.

"Well, I'm skilled in the areas of using pokemon, making important decisions under extreme pressure, and tracking - the skills of a police officer. Isn't it my role to help bring an end to this criminal organization, whether the desire is there or not?" Darien spoke slowly.

Sky's hands paused in flipping through the application for once as she finally glanced up at him, caught off guard by his unexpected answer. It was then that Darien's eyes stood out to her for the first time. They were an odd shade of a light baby blue, flecked with small amounts of gray, shining bright amidst his dark hair and otherwise pale complexion. Through his eyes, unseen emotions Sky couldn't understand seemed to swirl. Staring into his eyes was like staring into a dark valley, not bottomless, but very deep. And then she couldn't help but to wonder, _what's _my _role? Am I really supposed to be here?_

"And... how do you feel about Crescent's actions?" Sky asked, trying to pry a predictable answer out of Darien for reasons unknown to her.

Darien answered without hesitation or pauses. "I feel that he or she is a person who wants many things they're not supposed to have, and therefore acquires them through criminal ways that must be put to a stop for the sake of peace."

The beginning of his answer reminded Sky or her own words about Crescent towards Jason. She felt stumped, and tried to ignore the fact that the interviewer should not be the one to feel these things. _He's good,_ that was the only thought that stood out in Sky's mind at that moment.

Interrupting Sky's shocked silence, Darien spoke without waiting for her to ask another question. "When you think about it, isn't it a police officer's general role to keep us all peaceful?" he asked, referring back to his previous statement about roles.

Sky didn't know whether his question was rhetorical or not, but she couldn't help herself from replying to it anyways. "Or to keep _themselves_ peaceful," Sky replied softly, unsure of where the words came from.

For the first time, Darien showed the slightest bit of emotion in the simple action of raising his eyebrows just the slightest bit at Sky's remark. Her words seemed to interest him.

From that point on, Sky stopped trying to pry predictable answers out of Darien and instead stuck to the first questions that came out of her mouth without a thought, regular questions someone would hear during a standard interview. But even without her trying, again and again Darien surprised her with unexpected answers. It sounded as if he very much wanted this job, but for very unique reasons Sky couldn't quite figure out. Before she knew it, Sky had lost track of the time.

She glanced up at the clock. "Well Darien, it looks like your interview is over. Thanks for coming here." Sky stood up and reached out to shake his hand once more.

"When can I expect to hear back from you?" Darien asked, also standing up to leave.

"Uh..." Sky let go of his hand and glanced down at his application form once again, swiping out her black pen and clicking it open. "Right now," she answered, quickly signing her name at the bottom in one quick motion. "Congratulations, you've got the job. Go to the office to receive your uniform and badge and fill out a few more papers."

Darien raised his eyebrows only for the second time. "Don't you have to look over my application and your own notes and contact me about it later?" he asked in a curious tone.

Notes? Was she supposed to take notes during that whole time? _I must really suck at this whole interview thing,_ Sky thought, amused at herself. "Yeah, but oh well. Just be glad you've got the job," she replied simply, dropping all professionalism now that her mistakes had been made obvious.

"Okay. Thank you for your time, then. I look forward to starting this job," Darien told her, keeping up the polite tone despite Sky's lack of it. But as he exited the room, Sky thought she saw a slight amused smile appear across his lips as he turned his head away from her and walked out the door.

There was something about Darien that deeply intrigued Sky. During the rest of her quiet day at work, her thoughts never strayed far from him as scenes from the interview kept replaying inside her head. She realized that she wanted to know more about him. For the first time in a long while, she was actually looking forward to her following days at work. Sky smiled to herself. _Maybe I'll stick around for a little while longer._

* * *

James was sitting down at his table in the kitchen, watching the clock as nighttime dragged on by. Even through his usual patience, he was beginning to worry. Where was Sky? She was usually here by now. And if there was ever a reason why she couldn't come visit him one day, she usually called James to alert him of this fact. But then again, Sky's cellphone was still lying on that very table, unknowingly left there from the previous night. But couldn't she still have called him from work or her own home?

Whatever her reasons for not coming to visit him that night, James figured he should at least inform Sky about the whereabouts of her lost cellphone. He picked up the cellphone and flipped it open, dialing Sky's home phone number by memory with careful fingers. Holding the phone up to his ear, he listened to it ring with growing tension. Something didn't seem right.

Sky's voice sounded in his ear. "Hello?"

"Hello. I wanted to let you know that I found your cellphone."

"Really?! Oh, that's great! I was looking around for it all day!" She sounded delighted. "Where'd you find it?"

"It was at my house," answered James.

There was a slight moment of silence on the other end of the line. When Sky spoke again, she spoke slowly and suspiciously. "Why was my cellphone at _your house_?"

"Because you were over here last night, remember?" James reminded her, the tension growing inside him more.

"Um, who _is_ this?"

James's face seemed to freeze. "This is James."

Now Sky just sounded confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't know you."

All of the tension that had built up inside James seemed to silently explode. His stomach sank with a sickening feeling. "Really?" His voice was no more than a whisper.

"Yeah, really. You didn't _steal_ that cellphone, did you?" Sky asked, her tone suspicious once more. "'Cause I'm a cop, you know."

"No. I'm being completely honest when I say I did _not_ steal it," James assured her. "What do you want me to do with it?"

"Alright." Sky didn't seem completely satisfied with his assurance, but continued on anyways. "You can just drive down to the police station and go to the office. It's right at the entrance of the building. Ask the secretary to drop it off in my mailbox... my name's Sky," she instructed him.

"Okay. I'll do that sometime tomorrow."

"Bye!" And before James could say bye back, Sky hung up on the phone.

"Goodbye..." James whispered anyways, staring distantly into space as he slowly took the cellphone away from his ear.

Sky didn't remember James. She really didn't remember him. As this fact dawned on him, all of his insides began to sink lower and lower. _She doesn't know who I am, my love doesn't know who I am,_ kept repeating loudly inside James's head until it became a mental shout. He felt lost. How was this happening? What had caused it? A rare event, a rare illness, possibly some type of physical accident? James ran the previous day's occurrences through his mind, searching desperately for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing seemed especially different about that day except for Sky's sudden leave during the middle of their dinner after she had received a phone call.

James flipped her cellphone back open. With the press of a few buttons, he opened up the list of recently received calls. He did not recognize the number of the latest one, and the ID name appeared unknown too. There was no last name, only a first name - "Clara".

After pressing a button, James held the phone next to his ear, listening to it ring once again. But no one answered, and there was no answering machine to take a message from him. James sighed and set the cellphone down, staring at it for a moment. Resolving his mind, he stood up and dug through some drawers for a slip of paper and a writing utensil, and then returned to write down the phone number, tucking it away afterwards for safekeeping. With a heavy grunt, he brought out a large phone book and dropped it noisily on the table, calmly flipping through its many worn pages for an address.

No matter how much it took, James knew what he wanted to do. He had to contact this Clara person. He had to find some answers to the horror he had discovered.


	4. Misplaced

Part Four  
"Misplaced"

James gripped the steering wheel of his car tightly with determination. Using the phone book last night, he was fairly sure that "Clara" was not both her first name and her last, but there was no time for more confusion than he already had over Sky's lack of memory of him. The only thing that mattered was that he had succeeded in finding the stranger's address, which he had quickly scrawled on the small slip of paper at his side. The blinding sunlight spreading warmth throughout James's car seemed to mock the seriousness of the situation he had been thrust into.

As the empty road took a sudden curve towards the right, James arrived upon the lonesome driveway, surrounded only by acres of grass and trees touched lightly with the warm colors of autumn. Turning off the ignition, James stepped out of the car and quietly closed the door, gazing up at the sight before him.

The address had taken him to a large mansion.

Magnificently looming above James, all he could do was stand there for a moment, absorbing it all. Shaking himself out of his shock, he finally stepped up the driveway and to the door, not quite sure what he was feeling at that moment. James then rang the doorbell and waited, neither nervous nor calm, for the possibility of some answers.

The door opened widely, and James was surprised to find himself having to look down to stare into the face of the arrival. The small girl gazed up at James through wide round eyes with an expression of large surprise. "Are you Clara?" James asked.

"Yeah," she replied, apparently unable to say much more, slightly speechless. It suddenly dawned on James that she had been looking directly into his eyes the whole time - usually when people first met him, their eyes were first drawn to the large scar disfiguring the side of his face.

James addressed her emotion of surprise. "I'm sorry about arriving here unexpectedly. I tried to call first, but nobody picked up and there was no answering machine." He never took his glance away from Clara's face, intense but polite. "My name is James."

The expression etched on Clara's face changed into a cheerfully chipper one as she lost all previous speechlessness. "Well then, hello there, James!" she replied with a bright smile. "Come on inside." She pulled the door open a little wider and eagerly beckoned him to follow.

Taken aback by her willing openness towards him, James tenderly stepped inside the mansion as Clara quickly shut the door behind him. The room was large and open, with a high towering ceiling holding a hanging crystal chandeleir above their heads. A grand staircase curved up to a higher floor. Clara ran forwards to the center of the room and then turned around, facing James with an expression of delight. "Welcome to my home!" she told him, holding her arms out wide as if to embrace the world.

"Thank you. It's... beautiful," complimented James, whom was actually focusing more on Clara herself than on their surroundings, which were of little importance to him at the moment now that he had gotten over the initial shock of her extreme wealth.

"So what brings you here?" Clara asked as James walked up closer towards her.

"I believe you know my girlfriend Sky," James started, his heart taking a sudden jerk at his own words. "Something.. happened to her.. and you were the last person she received a call from two nights ago, before it happened."

"Ah, yeah, I do know Sky," Clara replied, beginning to slowly walk around the space absent-mindedly. "What is it that happened to her?" It occurred to James that she didn't sound very curious.

"She doesn't know who I am anymore," he answered, the familiar cold sinking feelings returning to his insides.

Clara remained silent for a moment, continuing to slowly randomly step away from James, her back towards him. She stopped and stood still, then suddenly whirled around to face him with an expression of honest curiosity this time.

"How would you feel if I told you I erased Sky's memories of you?"

The two of them stood facing each other blankly. "I don't know," James answered honestly.

"Well, how do you feel right _now_?" Clara asked, smiling without emotion.

James didn't answer. He only gazed at Clara feeling like the world was either growing more distant from him or crashing down upon him all at once, yet he tried to hide this feeling in himself as he always did. He only managed to speak aloud one word. "...How?"

"You see all this?" Clara gestured to their wealthy surroundings. "This isn't my parents'. Well, it used to be, though it wasn't from their own money. This is from _me_ - I may be only thirteen, but I'm really great with pokemon." She seemed impatient to get off the topic of her home, but apparently it was necessary to be mentioned.

"So do you do a lot of the championship pokemon battles?" James asked, not really sure where she was getting at.

"No, I don't really do battles. I'm talking about handling pokemon and taking care of them." Clara took a pokeball from her pocket and tossed it into the air. "Come on out, Hypno!" The yellow creature emerged from the bright light, staring up at both of them through narrowed eyes. Clara set a hand on top of the Hypno's head with fondness.

"Do you use that Hypno to...?"

"Yeah." Clara bent down and poked with a small finger at the pendulum hanging from the Hypno's hand. "It's just a hypnosis. Completely painless. It's a skill that you can have a Hypno do if you receive the correct complex training. This skill was passed down to me a couple years ago.... I'm the only one who knows how to do it," she explained.

"The only one? What about the person who taught you?" James asked.

Clara glanced back up at him. "They made them self forget through the same skill that they taught. The skill allows you to make the Hypno erase certain memories from anybody's mind. The human mind is a complex many-layered thing, though. The easiest task to do is erase the memories of all interactions with a certain person through their mind. Depending on how that person came to know them, they may still know of their existence, but not that they ever communicated with each other. After the person taught me, they wanted to erase all memories of the skill from them self, which also included having to forget me because all of their time interacting with me was spent teaching me."

"So you erased Sky's memory of me."

"I never do it without the person's consent first."

"So you called her over two nights ago and persuaded her," James replied. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Clara admitted.

Silence pierced the air. Suddenly finding himself overcome with light-headedness, James sat down on a cushioned sort of bench and buried his head in his hands, showing weakness for once. Dizzy, he could hardly even see the ground clearly through his spread fingers over his wary face.

"Do you hate me now?" Clara spoke softly.

"No." James slowly tilted his head to look back up at her through the eyes of a man who had lived through too much. "But... _why_?"

Clara didn't need to ask to know what he was wondering. "I know about the incident that happened in the past. Sky's been so overcome with guilt, it was making her depressed. She _hated_ her job, but she did it anyways for you." She leaned forward. "You were killing her from the inside, James."

James had already known about Sky's extreme guilt. You could see it on her face and the way she moved, you could hear it in her voice, you could feel it through her touch and taste it in her kiss. He hadn't known that she disliked her job, though. James felt guilty himself; almost responsible for the pain Sky had to go through. Perhaps that was why he felt no harsh feelings towards Clara and could not place any blame on her, even if he had wanted to.

"And so you used that to persuade her," James choked out, surprised at his rare inability to speak clearly.

"It was for her own good. Or else I'm afraid of what might've happened to her if it went on for too much longer. It really was destroying her."

James didn't know what more to say, and neither did Clara for a little while. They just stood there, now staring off into different directions, the atmosphere tense.

"Hey, let me show you something!" Clara suddenly spoke up, softening the tenseness through the sound of her eager voice. The previous conversation seemingly forgotten, she began to prance up the stairs, beckoning James to follow.

Clara led him down a long window-filled hallway and into a fairly small room with a large table placed in the center. On the table lay a smooth brown frame. Small connected puzzle pieces were placed together within the sides of the frame, forming a small mass of blue and yellow, but the majority of the space within the frame was still blank. The rest of the tiny puzzle pieces lay in piles according to color on top of the table but outside the frame.

James gazed down at the unfinished puzzle. "How many pieces is it?" he asked.

"One thousand!" Clara answered eagerly. "Huge, right? I just started it not too long ago."

"What picture is it supposed to form?"

"I don't know, maybe some pokemon - it didn't show the picture on the box it came in. But that's how it usually is, right?" Clara spoke slightly softer, turning from the puzzle to look over at James. "Not with puzzles, I mean. With.... everything."

"What do you mean?" James asked. He couldn't quite tell if she was trying to be serious or not.

"When things.. or people.. are supposed to be connected to each other." She gently ran her fingers across the surface of the puzzle pieces that were already within the frame. "You've got to correctly find and place them first. And you don't know what picture the whole thing forms until they're all placed together how they're supposed to be." Clara cupped her hands together to pick up an amount of the piles of pieces lying outside the frame. "You could always put the pieces together in whatever order you want, and it'll still form something..." Lifting them over the frame, she let go of the handful of pieces and they all scattered down, filling in the once-empty space. "...But they will form the wrong thing. Just a mass of confusing shapes."

Both of them gazed down at the filled space of randomly clashing colors.

"So, how do Sky and I come into this?" James asked softly.

Clara appeared to be thinking hard for the right answer. "I don't know." For the first time since James had met her, Clara seemed unsure. "But either you two had become misplaced and I unattached you from her, or you two were correct all along and now I've misplaced her."

James was thinking too, trying to make up his mind and separate it from the stabbing pain in his heart, but failing. He began to pace back and forth across the room, once again showing signs of distress, a rare action from him. "Okay." James prepared his decision. "I love Sky. I really do." Or maybe he was just persuading himself to make a decision. "I'll start all over again. I'll find her and get to know her again. She doesn't have to know she had anything to do with my injury at all. Even if it takes years, I'll start over for her." He continued to pace the room.

Clara was watching him carefully. "Alright. Good luck," she replied. "At least it'll probably be easier to get a hang of her. Now that she's forgotten, she's freed from any of the restrain she once had preventing her from quitting her job."

* * *

Sky arrived at work that morning only realizing she had forgotten to visit Jason after it was already too late - she had been looking forward to work - well, interacting with Darien - too much that day. The feeling, unfelt for so long, felt strange to her. But upon arrival, her expectations for action were not let down.

Almost immediately after stepping inside the building, a male officer hurried towards Sky with a stressed expression on his sweaty face. "Oh good, you're here. The gym leader's been kidnapped by Crescent's organization!" he burst out.

"_What?!_" Sky gawked at him. "Why kidnap the gym leader, of all people? Just for the pokemon? Kidnapping isn't really necessary for that.."

"We're not exactly sure either. But we do know that our city's gym leader has strong connections with the mayor," the officer replied nervously.

"There we go, that one makes more sense." Sky composed herself calmly. "Do I need to go into the field work?"

"Yes. The crime's already happened, but we need the scene investigated. You should probably take someone with you, too." He spoke the last part sternly.

_Is it really that noticeable that I prefer to work without these guys?_ Sky wondered. She smiled to herself, ready for the surprise. "Yeah, you're right. I'll bring Darien, the new officer."

* * *

Eventually Sky found herself steering a police cruiser across the city streets, blurs of color soaring past the windows. Darien was sitting quietly at her side in the passenger seat, gazing out his window at the skyscrapers towering above them.

Through the corner of her eye, Sky could see Darien then turn away from the window to stare at her. "Why did you choose me to bring along?" His velvety voice was intense.

"Well, since you're new here, I thought this would be good hands-on experience for you," lied Sky.

"I could've given predictable answers like that during the interview too." The corner of his mouth turned up.

Halting the car just as a stoplight turned red, Sky turned to look into Darien's smooth face. "What are you talking about?" she asked. But, her stomach lightly bubbling a little, she thought she knew.

"It seemed like predictable answers were boring you. I'm not surprised - judging by your lack of giving me a proper interview, you're not usually assigned to tasks like that. You probably enjoy physical field work a lot more. Well, I gave you something more interesting." He never once looked away from her.

Sky found herself gawking more than she had upon the news of the kidnapping. How could Darien interpret so much about her already? _Damn, he's probably one of those people that can tell practically everything about everybody just by looking at them,_ she thought wildly. But she was surprised to find herself almost eager to find out what more Darien would be able to tell.

"The light's green," muttered Darien.

"Oh!" Shaken out of her trance, Sky turned her head forwards again as the car behind them honked and began to drive again. She was determined to almost fight back against Darien, though. "It sounds like you didn't want to give anything."

"No, I usually don't," Darien admitted without seeming to care about this fact. But through the corner of her eye, Sky thought she could see a slightly interested expression etched on his face. "But at least you gave me something in return."

If she didn't have to concentrate on the road, Sky would've turned to give him a skeptic look. "What? A lousy interview?"

"No." The corner of Darien's mouth turned up again. Sky found that she enjoyed receiving this look. "I'd like to find out why you have the need to protect yourself."

So he remembered her slip of words. Sky remained silent after that.

After a few more minutes, they arrived in front of the Pokemon Gym. Stepping outside the police cruiser and into the light wind, Sky gazed up at the large building. Yellow caution tape hung on sticks thrust into the ground, surrounding the perimeter of the building, as those still left inside were quickly ushered out by officers that had already arrived upon the scene. The road leading to the gym had been blocked off, preventing anybody who wasn't of the police or another authority to enter.

"Alright, our task is to go up to the top floor to check things out. That's where the gym leader usually stays," Sky informed Darien. She turned to look at the other pokemon trainers exiting the building. In the distance, an officer signaled to her. "Yeah, looks like they're all out. Let's go in."

Both of them stepped inside the empty building, keeping a pokeball ready at hand. The lower floors seemed undisturbed, but they continued to keep a cautious pace in their ascent. "You learning how to protect yourself... is that the only reason why you're here?" Darien asked quietly, continuing their conversation from inside the car.

"The only reason?" Sky didn't look at him and avoided directly answering. "I take it you've guessed I don't exactly enjoy my job?"

They began to step up another flight of stairs. "Yes. Why don't you enjoy it?" Darien continued to look at her even though she didn't return his gaze back.

"I'm... kind of anti-authority."

Darien raised his eyebrows. "You're anti-authority, but you joined the police?"

"To try to exercise control in myself," Sky explained, mentally wincing.

Their conversation was interrupted by a change of scenery. Arriving upon the higher floors of the building, signs of a disturbance were now showing clearly. Some windows on once-locked doors had been shattered, leaving small pieces of sparkling glass sprawled across the ground. They crunched beneath their feet as Sky and Darien slowly entered the gym leader's room. The room was almost empty except for six pokeballs lying on the ground in the center, easily catching the two's attention with their startling red color. Sky came closer and bent down to observe. All of the pokeballs had a tiny engraved symbol, signaling that they had belonged to the gym leader.

"Well, looks like they left her pokemon behind." Sky had predicted no less. She furrowed her brow. "Though, this may just be a trap. Because they've been engraved, they're obviously not Voltorbs in disguise, but..."

Darien gazed down at the pokeballs calmly. "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Ask you to stand back - way back - for a moment," Sky muttered, a determined look seeming to cloud her forest-green eyes.

His face was expressionless as Darien obediently stepped backwards until he was within the doorway, carefully watching Sky.

"You're being reckless."

"I know."

And with that, Sky stood and picked up the nearest pokeball as she did so. Upon pulling the pokeball up into the air, Sky felt a slight strain pulling backwards. A black sort of wire had been attached from the bottom of the pokeball to the ground, where a small flat mechanism lay. Sky's eyes widened with realization.

"Shit! Shit! Get out of here!" Sky shouted towards Darien.

She quickly pressed the button on her own pokeball held in her other hand, releasing her particularly large Jolteon with a flash of blinding light. Swinging her leg over the pokemon's back so she was sitting on top, Sky pressed her body close against the Jolteon as she held on tightly, riding it away from the room. Just as she did, a loud explosion sounded behind her, sending air blowing against her long light hair. Not too far in the distance Sky could spot Darien riding what appeared to be a Houndoom.

But after the first explosion, another one sounded from somewhere behind her yet closer, and then another one, growing more intense and destructive with each burst. Sky let out a stream of curses. _Damn, they're all connected to each other!_ She grinded her teeth as she lead her Jolteon faster into a wild sprint, the adrenaline rush flowing through her whole body. Only after six explosions did her Jolteon take a final leap away from the largest and final blast, sending both of them tumbling to the ground a few yards from where Darien sat atop his Houndoom, waiting. Rolling across the ground as she fell, Sky quickly leapt back up to her feet in one swift movement.

Breathing heavily, Sky turned to look at him. "I admit I didn't think it would be _that_ destructive," she breathed.

"But you seemed to enjoy this," Darien observed smoothly. He narrowed his eyes and smiled without showing any teeth. "Thank you for answering my previous question."

"Yeah, whatever. Instead you should be thanking me for _this_." Sky took something out of her pocket. It was the one gym leader's pokeball she had picked up, triggering the mechanism bombs. A ripped wire remained attached on the bottom. Sky grinned at Darien's fairly surprised expression. "I don't think they expected anybody to still try to take the pokeball after setting off the bombs. But now the other five have surely been destroyed."

"Open it." Darien stepped closer.

Sky didn't need to be told. She pressed the small white button and watched as the top flipped open. But no blinding light was released from within - the pokeball was completely empty.

"So they took her pokemon after all? But aren't containing them in pokeballs?" Sky stared tensely at the object held in her hand, slightly confused.

"It looks like it." Darien began to walk outside the building and into the wind once again, which had grown stronger since before they had entered. "By the way, I don't know if you could call me anti-authority, but I don't like being told what to do either."

So they shared something in common. Sky sighed as she closed the pokeball back up and placed it inside a clear bag, zipping the top closed. As she slightly jogged to catch up with Darien, she noticed the rushing feeling that had flowed throughout her during the action had only disappeared for a brief moment.

It was still there, pulsing inside her, triggered like the bombs had been, except by Darien instead of herself.


	5. Turns

Part Five  
"Turns"

It was one of those mornings that felt like a whole day. Graying clouds blotting the air above so no single speck of blue was visible, Sky shivered slightly in the increasing coldness as she walked down the alley. The rough gusts of winds pushed at her with force, but she continued on. The only worry Sky had was the possibility that Jason may have chosen elsewhere to rest because of the clear signs of an oncoming storm. But her worries vanished at the sight of his familiar figure slouching against the same wall he always seemed to occupy.

As Sky approached, Jason looked up at her with disgruntled surprise. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Having no desire to sit on the freezing cement, Sky remained standing but rubbed her arms slightly, trying to build up some heat. "Visiting you, of course." She glanced up the sky that was surely threatening rain. "Are you alright staying out here in the cold? It's probably gonna storm soon."

Jason jerked his head away from her direction. "I'm fine!" he snapped, sounding annoyed. "And I don't just hang out here all day, I know other places I can take shelter in if it starts raining or anything. You'd be surprised at what you can get used to."

At Jason's words, Sky's thoughts drifted on Darien. "Well, I sure hope there's still things out there you can never get used to," she murmured. Almost forgetting the bitter chill, Sky grew silent as lost she herself in her own mind.

"Hey, if you're finished, will you leave already?"

Sky jumped slightly. "No, I'm not finished. I've just... been thinking," she replied, smiling slightly. "I had to do the job interview for this new police officer. His name's Darien. He intrigues me for some reason."

Jason smirked. "What could possibly be so intriguing about a person you've just met?"

"I don't know for sure, but he's so _calm_. It's like there's nothing he needs to be concerned about, nothing that he'd have to put effort into," Sky tried explaining. She paused for a moment, then continued. "He sees right through me, but he's like a shaded window. _I_ can't see _him_."

"And what the hell are all these guesses supposed to mean?"

Hearing this, Sky had a strong urge to laugh. Not at Jason, but at herself. It was true - all of these comments were just guesses.

"Listen to yourself," Sky replied, passing with just a grin. "You just talk without thinking first. You don't keep it inside of yourself. I suspect Darien is hearing me like I'm hearing you, except I'm not saying everything."

"Is that good or bad?" Jason asked.

"You're reckless with blurted words. Bad."

"I was talking about Darien!" he replied angrily.

This time Sky did laugh. "I'm not sure," she admitted, considering the question. "Depends on what he finds."

_I'm open._

* * *

Several hours later into the day as twilight was emerging, James was closing the car door behind him as he sat down at the wheel. Pulling his car out of the driveway, he drew his gaze to the darkening sky, and then began to drive on. The roads seemed strangely lonely, even regarding wild pokemon. Large groups of Pidgeys and Spearows quickly flew away to take shelter within the large shady trees that were heavily rustling in the strong gusts of wind. An occasional drop of rain splattered onto the car windows here and there.

He was driving towards Sky's house. To start over. The drive would be long, probably around forty-five minutes - Sky lived fairly far away from James's own house so she could be closer to the police station she worked at. But James didn't care because he knew there was no other way. Sky's work hours were unpredictable, often differing by day, but he knew she should come home around the time he'd be arriving. _Since she doesn't have to drive down to my house to visit me,_ James thought, his heart sinking.

As James drove down a straight barren highway, he began to grow unsure of himself. What would he say to Sky once he met her? He had an excuse to visit Sky since he had found her lost cellphone previously, but he would still seem like a random stranger arriving upon her doorstep. What would she think of that?

These worries clashed with his determination, but these feelings were the only things keeping James company as he drove on. After what seemed like a long period of time, he finally arrived at Sky's house. By the time he had reached this destination, the rain was now steadily rushing down from the sky. Pulling into the driveway with his windshield wipers rhythmically moving back and forth, James stared up at the sight before him in the darkness. None of the lights in her house were on.

_She's not here yet,_ James let the obvious conclusion tell him. And yet he felt himself open the car door to the bitterly cold rain riding on the strong rushing wind and stepped out, shutting it behind him, leaving car still running. As he walked up to the front door, the rain only seemed to intensify in strength. He reached out to ring the doorbell and then stood there waiting, brown hair plastered to the sides of his wary scarred face, already dripping wet. But as his clothes began to grow heavier as they quickly soaked up the rushing water from above, he knew it was no use. Sky must still be at work.

James did not feel disappointed yet. He knew there was a large possibility this might happen. Seemingly oblivious to the wild weather throwing itself upon him, his walk back towards the car was slow. After he pulled the door open and sat inside, James turned the ignition off and leaned his head back, wet and shivering, the steady drone of rain pounding down on the car echoing in his ears.

He didn't care how long it took. He would wait for her to come home.

* * *

Sky stood frowning at the darkness and violent weather rushing outside the window she was gazing through. _I hope Jason's doing okay,_ she thought. As for herself, if she didn't start heading home immediately, the outside conditions might become too dangerous to drive through. Just as she sighed and turned around to start heading down the hallway, the same male police officer that had rushed towards Sky yesterday came towards her again, his expression serious.

"I need to show you something. Come with me," he ordered.

Sky obeyed and followed the officer, both of them walking side-by-side at a brisk pace. "What is it?" Sky asked.

"Today we received an electronic message from Crescent with word about the kidnapping of the gym leader. Trying to bargain with us for information about the mayor," the officer explained, gritting his teeth.

"But she knows more about him than we do! Is this a ransom?"

"Actually, no. The bargain was that if we gave Crescent some information, they'd stop their forceful interrogation of her."

"'Forceful interrogation'... what exactly are they doing to her?" Sky asked, not sure if she really wanted to hear the answer.

The officer's expression grew darker as he remained silent, continuing to lead Sky through the hallways and into the main office. "We received some photos electronically too, as proof. And no, even though we've been working all day, we haven't been able to trace the message." He sighed and showed Sky to the computer. "_This_ is what Crescent means by 'forceful interrogation'."

Sky leaned down towards the bright screen to stare at the photos attached with the electronic message. Her insides seemed to twist unpleasantly as she scrolled through six pictures. They were not of the gym leader, but of the gym leader's pokemon. Three of them were locked within small cages, looking distressed but otherwise healthy. The other three were sprawled on the surface of their cages, _dead_. Their deaths showed clear signs of being slow and painful. Their ruffled fur was full of deep gashes, stained with dried blood. Each of the cages was scarred with various bloody paw prints or claw prints depending on the pokemon. The photos could not have been taken very long after they were tortured.

The sight was sickening. Sky pulled her horrified gaze away from the screen. "Destroy the gym leader _mentally_ first, huh?" Sky muttered darkly. She could not even imagine how horrible it must've been for the gym leader to witness her own pokemon being brutally killed, assuming that's what Crescent had occur.

"Looks like that's what they're doing," the officer agreed. "Do you want me to e-mail all of this to you?"

"Yeah," replied Sky.

She then left the main office, heading towards the direction of the other private offices. Sky wanted to show the photos to Darien to see what he thought of all this. Her footsteps echoing through the bare empty hallways, she arrived upon the door that she knew led to Darien's office and knocked first before she made to turn the handle. It was locked. Just as Sky began to wonder if Darien had gone home already, he appeared at the end of the hallway and stepped towards her, expressionless as ever.

Sky was relieved to see him. "Have you heard about the message?" she asked immediately.

"Yes, but I don't know many details about it," Darien replied.

"Here, then let me show you. I've asked for it to be e-mailed to me." Sky gestured for Darien to follow. She quickly led him down the hallways and towards her own office, both of them walking in silence.

After stepping inside her quiet office, Sky led Darien over towards her computer and opened up the e-mail with a few clicks. She then stepped back and let Darien lean down to observe the photos, watching his face carefully. As his eyes flickered from one photo to the next, Darien's expression still remained smoothly obscured.

"What do you think of it?" Sky asked.

"I think it's strongly inhumane. But probably effective."

"Yeah. Well, I'd hope it's not effective," Sky replied. Both of them began to slowly walk outside the office. "Our gym leader has a strong personality. She's a good person that knows when and when not to say things."

"So then she has good morals?" Darien seemed to be leading the way more than Sky as they arrived upon the hallway Sky had stood in previously, one of the few within the building that had windows revealing the outside world around them. "Then what morals would she be fighting for with her endurance? The sake of her pokemon, or the sake of the people in this city? Both surely have meaning for her."

Sky bit her lip as she gazed out at the treetops leaning over in the strong blustering wind, rain pounding down on the windows. There was a rumble of thunder from somewhere in the distance. "Of course they do. It's true that she's faced with a very hard decision."

"And it seems like we haven't been able to help her," Darien noted, also turning to gaze out the window.

"Yeah." Sky furrowed her brow. "But, speaking of morals... what in the world could drive somebody to do something so cruel, to apparently not even care about their inhumane behavior?"

"Well, what is it that drives you to act so reckless?" Darien spoke smoothly. "You realize it but you don't seem to do much to prevent it."

When Sky glanced over at him, Darien's gaze was now turned towards her, his startlingly bright blue eyes boring into her own. "But that.. I mean, that's not affecting anybody else, just myself!" Sky spoke hurriedly. She found she didn't like being compared to Crescent.

Darien did not let go of the topic. "And so Crescent is acting to make sure he's protected, while you're acting to hurt yourself more. How ill-moraled a person's intentions are can be interpreted differently."

Sky lowered her head. "People's intentions... I never said they could really be either good or bad."

Darien continued to speak smoothly and calmly. "Then think of those photos of the pokemon. Bloody, dead. Is that what makes Crescent the bad guy?"

She raised her head to stare into his eyes again, willing them to understand her. "I don't divide people into 'good guys' and 'bad guys', good or evil. It all just depends on what they want, why they want it, their intentions, their own definition of what's good."

Darien remained silent for a moment, his expression finally changing into an interested one. When he spoke, his voice was soft. "So then what would you call Crescent and other criminals?"

"They're simply what we're going up against. So, I guess I would just call them... the enemy," Sky answered slowly.

A blinding flash of lighting struck across the sky outside the window, briefly lighting up the hallway for a moment, Sky and Darien's figures sending scattered shadows across the ground. Another rumble of thunder sounded, lower and louder this time. As the two stood facing each other, Sky had a sudden strange desire to touch Darien's hair, smooth and black. Just to run her fingers through it.

Darien tilted his head slightly. "There are things I wouldn't change about myself either. For example, my mind cannot be changed. It will always head in the same direction, never turning, never straying far." He narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly through tight lips. Two more jagged lines of lightning flashed, illuminating him, standing tall and staring down at - yet through - Sky.

Sky gazed up at him, slightly breathless at his first revealing of his own flaws. Neither of them said anything more, and so Darien turned around to walk in the opposite direction.

"Wait!" Sky finally choked out. She glanced briefly out the window again. "Are you heading home now? It's probably really dangerous to drive the roads in this weather. I'm just going to stay here overnight."

Darien continued walking but turned to look over his shoulder at her as he did. "Yes, I'm heading out. I can't stay here overnight; there are other places I would rather be. Oh, and..." He turned his head back forwards and away from Sky. "...I don't think you have much say in telling other people to watch out for danger when you can't watch out for it either."

* * *

A few hours had passed, but James still remained awake and alert, patiently waiting, keeping his eye on the rearview mirror for the familiar sight of Sky's car emerging through the darkness. But as the sound of the rain pounding on the ceiling of the car grew almost deafening and thunder and lightning began to emerge, time slowly seeping by as the storm intensified, the sight he was waiting for never appeared.

James glanced at the clock. It was very late - almost midnight. Sky always arrived home from work at least by now. But as a particularly strong rush of wind shook the car slightly, James remembered the option of staying overnight at the police station, an oppurtunity that could be taken advantage of during nights like this when bad weather threatened the roads.

The realization struck him like a knife - Sky wasn't coming home tonight.

Defeated, he turned the car's key and the ignition rumbled on again. It was time to head back towards his own home. There was no use staying any longer. James pulled out of the driveway and began the long drive down the highway. The road seemed to go on almost endlessly this time. James was forced to drive slowly, as he could hardly see the area in front of him through the heavy walls of rain and rapid flashing lightning illuminating the sky.

As James drove, his thoughts wandered. Despite forgetting him and being freed of her guilt, apparently Sky hadn't yet quit her job. Why? What was keeping her there? At least she had somewhere to go. James felt like he had nowhere. He almost dreaded stepping back inside his house with the dissatisfaction of knowing he had failed. He wished Sky were there to greet him, to welcome him home and into her arms.

But then he remembered the last nights he had spent with Sky, and her unhappiness. How had he felt, staring into that sullen face of hers across the table? James remembered the lack of longing for her. He remembered only wishing for her to feel better and to be freed. _Well, that's what's happened, hasn't it?_ James reminded himself. He imagined her giving him one of her quick kisses on the cheek as she rushed out the door. Is that what she had wanted at all? Is that what _he_ had wanted at all?

..._'Bye!'_...

The highway was turning and branching off into different streets. James stared up at the green signs above informing drivers of the directions they were heading in, but the all the white letters upon them looked blurry and smudged through the window. Feeling light-headed, James quickly took a turn down another road, finding himself unable to concentrate on his driving. Thunder rumbled overhead as the passing colors became more blurry. Through the rain, James was eventually able to notice his surroundings appeared very unfamiliar. He had taken a wrong turn, and was now thoroughly lost.

That was when James noticed his own hands tightly gripping the steering wheel before him appeared blurry too. He was faintly aware of the wetness slowly rolling down his cheeks. _I'm tired of this,_ James thought, mentally letting it all out. _I'm tired of this!_

Wheels screeching, he suddenly pulled over on the side of the road and stopped. Closing his eyes against the blinding light of large amounts of lightning, James rested his head down against the surface of the steering wheel and silently let the tears stream down his face.

James was not exactly sure what he was grieving for. He only knew that he had given up, let go, and that sometimes even the wrong decisions were right, and vice versa.

It was only after a long time did James start up the car again and continue driving, attempting to remove himself from the unfamiliar surroundings through the weather and his grief and tears. Time now seemed non-existent, and he could not remember clearly where he was heading, but eventually James found himself on the driveway of Clara's mansion instead of his own home. There were still lights on. He did not know what had led him there but he did not care. Stumbling out of the car and into the driving rain, he trudged up to her doorstep and rang the doorbell.

The door opened almost immediately, Clara emerging, staring up at James with an expression of shock and surprise. "James! What's wrong?! Come inside, you're soaking wet!"

Thankful that Clara had not asked him what he was doing there, James stepped inside to the quietness and warmth of Clara's home as she shut the door behind him. "I tried to go visit Sky. I drove to her house," he explained softly. James was finding it hard to speak.

"So how'd it go?" Clara asked fearfully. Her gaze seemed to be locked onto James's face, never looking away. He vaguely wondered what he looked like, standing there before her dripping in rain and his own tears.

"She wasn't home, and I waited, but she never came. She must be staying overnight at the police station because of the bad weather." James closed his eyes. "She's still doing her job."

"What are you going to do?"

There was a pause.

"Nothing."

And then he erupted into soft sobs, still standing there with his eyes shut tightly. James felt Clara step up closer and wrap her arms around him, pressing herself against him in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. And for the first time since he had met her, James heard deep sadness soaking in Clara's voice. She truly meant it.

And so he wrapped his own arms around her, returning the embrace. He did not care that he had only just met her, just as he did not care that it was Clara that had erased Sky's memory. As they stood there hugging in silence except for the muffled sounds of thunder outside and James's quiet sobs, he had a better idea of what he was grieving for. He was not shedding tears for Sky, nor himself. He was shedding tears for what used to be.. and the feelings he had lost forever.


End file.
